MRI apparatus and RF pulse generating circuit

• US 7,560,933 B2
• Filed: 04/15/2008
• Issued: 07/14/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/18/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: GE Medical Systems Global Technology Company LLC (GE Healthcare Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: GE Medical Systems Global Technology Company LLC (GE Healthcare Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Yoshizawa, Nobuhiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Shrivastav; Brij B
• Application Number:
  US12/103,557
• Publication Number:
  US 20080258732A1
• Time in Patent Office: 455 Days
• Field of Search: 324300-322, 600407-445, 375/239, 370/205, 332/109
• US Class Current: 324/322
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/3607 RF waveform generators, e.g. frequency generators, amplitude-, frequency- or phase modulators or shifters, pulse programmers, digital to analog converters for the RF signal, means for filtering or attenuating of the RF signal
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/3621 NMR receivers or demodulators, e.g. preamplifiers, means for frequency modulation of the MR signal using a digital down converter, means for analog to digital conversion [ADC] or for filtering or processing of the MR signal such as bandpass filtering, resampling, decimation or interpolation

Abstract

An MRI apparatus includes: an RF coil to which analog RF pulse signals are applied; an RF pulse generating circuit which generates said analog RF pulse signals; and a magnetic resonance signal receiving circuit which receives analog magnetic resonance signals and converts these signals into baseband digital magnetic resonance signals, said RF pulse generating circuit comprising: a carrier signal generator which generates a digital carrier signal having a predetermined number of bits; a digital modulator which modulates said digital carrier signal with a digital envelope signal, thus generating digital RF pulse signals; a digital-analog converter which converts said digital RF pulse signals into the analog RF pulse signals; and an inversion unit which generates a digital inverted carrier signal having a two'"'"'s complement relationship with said digital carrier signal and sends the digital inverted carrier signal to said magnetic resonance signal receiving circuit, said magnetic resonance signal receiving circuit comprising: an analog-digital converter which converts the analog magnetic resonance signals into digital magnetic resonance signals having a predetermined number of bits; and a digital demodulator which demodulates said digital magnetic resonance signals with said digital inverted carrier signal, thus converting these signals into the baseband digital magnetic resonance signals.

Claims

1. An MRI apparatus comprising:

an RF coil to which analog RF pulse signals are applied;

an RF pulse generating circuit configured to generate the analog RF pulse signals; and

a magnetic resonance signal receiving circuit configured to receive analog magnetic resonance signals and to convert the analog magnetic resonance signals into baseband digital magnetic resonance signals,

wherein said RF pulse generating circuit comprises;

a carrier signal generator configured to generate a digital carrier signal having a predetermined number of bits;

a digital modulator configured to modulate the digital carrier signal with a digital envelope signal to generate digital RF pulse signals;

a digital-analog converter configured to generate the digital RF pulse signals into the analog RF pulse signals; and

an inversion unit configured to generate a digital inverted carrier signal having a two'"'"'s complement relationship with the digital carrier signal and to send the digital inverted carrier signal to said magnetic resonance signal receiving circuit,

and wherein said magnetic resonance signal receiving circuit comprises;

an analog-digital converter configured to convert the analog magnetic resonance signals into digital magnetic resonance signals having a predetermined number of bits; and

a digital demodulator configured to demodulate the digital magnetic resonance signals with the digital inverted carrier signal to convert the digital magnetic resonance signals into the baseband digital magnetic resonance signals.

2. The MRI apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said carrier signal generator comprises:

a first phase memory configured to store a phase increment;

a first phase accumulator configured to set an initial value of a first phase at initialization and to calculate a first accumulated phase by adding the phase increment for every clock period; and

a first waveform table configured to store digital carrier signal and to output the digital carrier signal corresponding to the first accumulated phase when the first accumulated phase is input into said first waveform table.

3. The MRI apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said inversion unit is configured to generate the digital inverted carrier signal by transforming the digital carrier signal generated by said carrier signal generator into two'"'"'s complement form.

4. The MRI apparatus according to claim 2,

wherein said inversion unit comprises:

a second phase memory configured to store the phase increment;

a second phase accumulator configured to set an initial value of a second phase at initialization and to calculate a second accumulated phase by adding phase increment for every clock period; and

a second waveform table configured to store the digital inverted carrier signal and to output the digital inverted carrier signal corresponding to second accumulated phase when the second accumulated phase is input into said second waveform table, wherein an arbitrary phase difference between the digital carrier signal and the digital inverted carrier signal may be set by adjusting the initial value of the first phase and the initial value of the second phase.

5. The MRI apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said digital modulator comprises a digital mixer.

6. The MRI apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said digital modulator comprises a digital mixer.

7. The MRI apparatus according to claim 5, wherein said digital demodulator comprises a digital mixer.

8. The MRI apparatus according to claim 6, wherein said digital demodulator comprises a digital mixer.

9. The MRI apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising a low-pass filter configured to remove higher harmonic components included in the analog RF pulse signals.

10. The MRI apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising a low-pass filter configured to remove higher harmonic components included in the analog RF pulse signals.

11. The MRI apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the analog RF pulse signals from which the higher harmonic components have been removed are amplified and applied to said RF coil.

12. The MRI apparatus according to claim 4, the initial value of the first phase and the initial value of the second phase are set to minimize noise that is superimposed on the analog magnetic resonance signals when a subject does not exist in a bore.

13. An RF pulse generating circuit for use in an MRI apparatus including a magnetic resonance signal receiving circuit configured to demodulate digital magnetic resonance signals having a predetermined number of bits with a digital inverted carrier signal to convert the digital magnetic resonance signals into baseband digital magnetic resonance signals, said RF pulse generating circuit comprising:

a carrier signal generator configured to generate a digital carrier signal having a predetermined number of bits;

a digital modulator configured to modulate the digital carrier signal with a digital envelope signal to generate digital RF pulse signals;

a digital-analog converter configured to convert the digital RF pulse signals into analog RF pulse signals; and

an inversion unit configured to generate a digital inverted carrier signal having a two'"'"'s complement relationship with the digital carrier signal and to send the digital inverted carrier signal to said magnetic resonance signal receiving circuit.

14. The RF pulse generating circuit according to claim 13, wherein said carrier signal generator comprises:

a first phase memory configured to store a phase increment;

a first phase accumulator configured to set an initial value of a first phase at initialization and to calculate a first accumulated phase by adding the phase increment for every clock period; and

a first waveform table configured to store the digital carrier signal and to output the digital carrier signal corresponding to the first accumulated phase when the first accumulated phase is input into said first waveform table.

15. The RF pulse generating circuit according to claim 14, wherein said inversion unit is configured to generate the digital inverted carrier signal by transforming the digital carrier signal generated by said carrier signal generator into two'"'"'s complement form.

16. The RF pulse generating circuit according to claim 14,

wherein said inversion unit comprises:

a second phase memory configured to store the phase increment;

a second phase accumulator configured to set an initial value of a second phase at initialization and to calculate a second accumulated phase by adding the phase increment for every clock period; and

a second waveform table configured to store the digital inverted carrier signal and to input the digital inverted carrier signal corresponding to the second accumulated phase when the second accumulated phase is input into said second waveform table, wherein an arbitrary phase difference between the digital carrier signal and the digital inverted carrier signal can be set by adjusting the initial value of the first phase and the initial value of the second phase.

17. The RF pulse generating circuit according to claim 15, wherein said digital modulator comprises a digital mixer.

18. The RF pulse generating circuit according to claim 16, wherein said digital modulator comprises a digital mixer.

19. The RF pulse generating circuit according to claim 17, wherein said digital demodulator comprises a digital mixer.

20. The RF pulse generating circuit according to claim 19, further comprising a low-pass filter configured to remove higher harmonic components included in the analog RF pulse signals.